LAWRENCE — Prison parolee Orlando Fuentes won't be able to attend his slain brother's funeral tomorrow.
He was ordered held yesterday on $200,000 cash bail in connection with a shooting on Willow Street last weekend in which a 71-year-old man was injured.
That shooting occurred about 30 minutes after his brother Rolando Fuentes, 33, was shot to death in the parking lot of a strip mall at 360 Broadway early Saturday morning, police said.
Police still were at the scene of the killing when they received a call of shots fired at 167 Willow St.
Roberto Ruiz told police two men knocked on the door of his apartment, but he shut it quickly after seeing two men standing there, one with a gun pointed at him.
The gunman fired several rounds from a .45-caliber pistol through the door and then walked around the house firing through windows into the apartment.
Castro Ruiz, 71, father of Roberto, was struck in the back of the neck by a bullet, but was not seriously injured.
Orlando Fuentes, 36, of 38 Larchwood Road, Methuen, was arrested early Sunday morning and charged with three counts of home invasion, three counts of attempted murder, three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, carrying a firearm without a license, and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building.
Yesterday in Lawrence District Court, a hearing had been scheduled to determine whether Fuentes posed a danger to the community and should remain locked up until his trial.
But Assistant District Attorney Jessica Strasnick withdrew her request for the "dangerousness" hearing and told Judge Anthony Sullivan she would ask instead that he set $500,000 cash bail on Fuentes.
Strasnick outlined Fuentes' extensive criminal record, and noted that he had served prison time on several occasions.
Strasnick said Fuentes was on parole until August of next year on earlier convictions, and as a result of the new charge, the state parole board had lodged a detainer with the court to keep Fuentes in custody even if he were able to make bail.
As five court officers ringed the small, third-floor courtroom, Strasnick told the court that Orlando Fuentes had arrived at the scene of the 2:28 a.m. shooting and wanted to go in the ambulance with his brother, but was not allowed.
"He was aware that his brother had been shot and was concerned that he was dying," Strasnick said.
She said police received the Willow Street call about 3:04 a.m., 36 minutes after the murder and Orlando Fuentes showed up at Lawrence General Hospital a few minutes after that.
She told the court that Roberto Ruiz had picked Fuentes out of a photo array as the man who fired the gun into his apartment.
Thomas Torrisi, the lawyer for Fuentes, tried to pick apart the prosecution's case noting that the police report indicated the taller of the two men at the door fired the gun.
He had Fuentes stand up and told the judge he estimated that Fuentes was 5 feet 6 inches tall.
But Strasnick explained that the officer had made a mistake when he sat down to write the report of the interview with Roberto Ruiz and reversed the descriptions of the two men who knocked on the door.
Torrisi said Fuentes was "fingered" by members of the state police gang unit as the one responsible for the Willow Street shooting.
Sullivan set $200,000 cash bail and noted the parole detainer and set Aug. 26 for a probable cause hearing.
"I am sorry for your loss," Sullivan said to Fuentes and his family members sitting in the courtroom. "We will let the system move forward."
